A campaign argument over the effectiveness of federal stimulus money has escalated after U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., charged that Republican challenger Steve Obsitnik's company accepted millions of dollars in taxpayer support.

The money to move Quintel USA Inc., to Rochester, N.Y. in 2010 involved a deal with the Empire State Development Fund, which was partially funded by the kind of job-creating stimulus money that Obsitnik has labeled as ineffective.

Obsitnik charged Sunday that Himes is making "wild allegations" in an attempt to deflect his role in providing $3 million in federal-stimulus dollars to a now-bankrupt Bridgeport ship builder.

The late-campaign back-and-forth began Thursday in Norwalk when Himes and Obsitnik tangled over the success of the Obama administration's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) stimulus money in creating jobs.

In a debate before about 150 business people, Obsitnik, president and CEO of Quintel USA, charged that Himes helped the now-bankrupt Derecktor Shipyards, a boat and ship-building operation on Bridgeport Harbor. He said it was an example of the ineffectiveness of the ARRA.

"You were instrumental in Bridgeport in bringing in $3 million to Derecktor Shipyards, making these $200-million fancy yachts," Obsitnik charged. "Three million dollars and they wound up bankrupt a year later."

Himes, who was elected in 2008, immediately distanced himself.

"I had nothing to do with Derecktor," he replied. "That was before I was in office. I had nothing to do with it."

Himes went on to say that he brought millions of dollars in additional police funding for Bridgeport, as well as about half a million dollars to tear down the city's long-broken Congress Street bridge.

According to federal records of the ARRA program, the $4.8 million for 20 new Bridgeport police officers was awarded the month before Derecktor Shipyards received $2,947,000 for a new dry-dock facility.

By late January of this year, after 11 years in Bridgeport, Derecktor, which at its height employed 300 people to construct fireboats, private yachts and a regional ferry for the state of Alaska, filed for bankruptcy protection for the second time in five years.

Records online at Recovery.org, the federal website tracking stimulus money, indicate that the police funding was awarded on July 1, 2009, and Derecktor's dry dock award was granted on Aug. 17, seven months after Himes and Obama took office. The bankruptcy filing was made about 2 1/2 years after the ARRA award, not in 2010 as Obsitnik claimed in the debate.

"Congressman Himes' answer was less than truthful in the debate," said Amanda Bergen, Obsitnik's spokeswoman. "The facts are clear. He voted for the stimulus that gave Derecktor money. It's another example of how candidate Himes and Congressman Himes often contradict each other. He can't have it both ways. Derecktor got stimulus money. The stimulus wasn't in the works before the `08 election."

Plans for the dry dock facility were part of a package of Bridgeport development requests in early 2009 to the then-new Obama administration.

In April, 2008, U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, Himes' predecessor, whom he defeated in the November election that year, announced a federal Department of Transportation grant for Derecktor Shipyards totaling more than $863,000 to purchase welding equipment and a hydraulic bending machine.

The grant was part of a national effort to support small shipyards under then-President George W. Bush's National Defense Authorization Act of 2006 and 2007.

During the Norwalk debate and earlier on the campaign trail, Obsitnik, who is taking a leave from Quintel to challenge Himes, said that Gov. Dannel P. Malloy failed to offer the kind of support New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration had available.

Records of the Quintel deal on file with the Empire State Development Corp. indicate that the move to Rochester was sealed in April, 2010, seven months before Malloy was elected to succeed Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and nine months before Malloy took office.

The ARRA of 2009 brought nearly $35 billion in federal stimulus money to New York State, including $4.6 billion for labor and employment efforts. The Quintel deal included moving two related entities to a 37,000-square-foot complex previously occupied by the former Eastman Kodak Company.

The Empire State Development Fund provided a grant of $1.3 million for renovations and equipment for the Eastman Business Park and manufacturing facility. An additional $2.58 million grant from the Upstate Regional Blueprint Fund, another state program, was part of the project. The total cost was $11 million.

In Empire State Development Fund documents, the Rochester area was described as the home of many high-tech and optical-manufacturing workers.

Quintel -- a privately held wireless network and antenna company with 140 patents that is based in the Cayman Islands and has a development office in Mumbai, India -- was required to create 68 new jobs by 2015. The Rochester location is to focus on advancements in wireless tower antennas.

Empire State Development received ARRA grants totaling more than $86 million and Monroe County received more than $24 million in ARRA money, according to filings on recovery.org. In addition, Empire State Development was allowed $30 million in ARRA-approved tax credits.

Justin Myers, Himes' campaign manager, said that Obsitnik's criticism of stimulus money seems contradictory in light of Quintel's deal with New York.

"The recovery act helped jump-start the economy, putting Americans back to work improving businesses in towns across Southwest Connecticut, hiring 20 new police officers in the City of Bridgeport, and training future employees to re-enter the workforce," Myers said. "The recovery act also provided funds to the Empire State Economic Development Fund in New York, the same organization which Obsitnik took nearly $4 million from to move jobs to New York."

Bergen, Obsitnik's spokeswoman, said Sunday that Himes' claims amount to "wild allegations" against the GOP candidate.

"Rochester offered state incentives and it would have been silly not to take advantage of them," Bergen said. "It does not change the fact that the stimulus did not work. That is painfully obvious since unemployment is at 9 percent, gas prices are at record highs and home values in Fairfield County are suffering more than anywhere else in the country."